Johnson backs Australia's pace battery

Beware everyone: Mitchell Johnson believes the Australian pace battery, comprising Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and himself, have the potential to destroy opponents if the defending champions can couple their "aggression" with "smart" game-plans. "We just have to be smart about our bowling but I think we're still going to be aggressive," Johnson said on the eve Australia's first warm-up match against India on Sunday.

Johnson felt the ability of all the three tearaways to consistently cross the 90 mph-mark left the batsman with not much room for escape. "That's sort of the plan, isn't it?", Johnson quipped, asked if he liked the fact that batsmen did not get any respite with him coming in as first-change after the new ball pair of Lee and Tait. "We can all bowl at between 140 and 150 [kph]. Shaun and Brett can even bowl over that. No one really is too keen on facing anything like that. We'd be one of the only teams going around like that. So it'd be a bonus for us," Johnson said. 

As for a workable strategy, Johnson believes he and his fellow quicks would put to use the short ball consistently. "We look at trying to get the ball to reverse, trying to use our change-ups. We're still going to try and bowl short balls over here. We know that especially a lot of the Indian batsmen aren't too keen on it," Johnson said with a smile. 

Incidentally, the trio has played together only twice so far: in the 2007 CB Series against New Zealand and recently in the sixth match of the ODI series against England, in which the England made a record 334. Though Australia escaped to victory with four balls to spare (Johnson played his part with the bat after being promoted to No.4), a view was formed that the fast men were vulnerable to leaking runs if their aggression went wrong. 

Johnson did not buy that opinion at all. "We work pretty well together," he said. "Obviously there was a lot of talk about us leaking too many runs. [But] Brett Lee did an exceptional job through that one-day series as you saw. With that experience, I think it's going to help myself and Shaun through this tournament. It probably showed towards the end of the one-day series," Johnson said. 

On Thursday Ricky Ponting had said that Lee, who was the top wicket-taker against England, was better suited to play a defensive role while he wanted both Johnson and Tait to bowl as quick as possible. "Brett has been able to turn himself into a bit more of a defensive-minded bowler. He has changed his approach a bit more, probably a bit more nous. I've been really impressed with Brett since he's come back into the Australian team. In the six games he played back in Australia [against England] I think he was the pick of our bowlers in maybe all but one," Ponting said. 

But he wanted Tait to just go for the maximum clicks. "Shaun Tait, I just want to let him go, let him run in and bowl fast and take wickets," he said. "Johnson, at his best, he is a guy who doesn't go for a lot of runs and he takes wickets," Ponting said about Johnson before following with a rider: "'if he's not at his best, we know he can leak a few runs.'' 

Johnson had a miserable summer during the Ashes barring at Perth where he snared six first-innings wickets with unplayable swing bowling to help level the series. But then one swallow doesn't make the summer and Johnson was ineffective for the remainder of the Test series. He found some late form at the back-end of the seven-match ODI series with a tally of 6 wickets at 23 from four matches. 

Today Johnson partially acknowledged that he had endured more bad days than good, which was hurting him. "I've never felt too far away from being at my best but for me it just gets highlighted a lot more if I'm having a bad performance. I probably need to bring my performances closer together - have that sort of middle ground. At the moment it's either really good or not as good," he said. 

Yet there is some positive news for him. Though he is yet to play in Sri Lanka, in India and Bangladesh Johnson has 31 wickets at 23.97 in 18 matches. Lee's 24 wickets across the three World Cup hosting countries has come at 31.54 from 21 matches. So even if Lee remains the leader of the pack, Johnson can take confidence from those numbers and hope to find the middle ground.

Broad '100% fit' ahead of World Cup

On the eve of England's departure for the World Cup fast bowler Stuart Broad has declared himself 100% fit after recovering from an abdominal injury that has kept him out of action since the Adelaide Ashes Test in December. 

England's ODI fortunes have suffered in Broad's absence, as they slumped to a 6-1 defeat in a gruelling series against Australia. England are still feeling the affects of a lengthy winter's work with Eoin Morgan ruled out with a broken finger and Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad and Paul Collingwood all nursing injuries. 

Chris Tremlett will travel with the squad as a back-up seamer but news of Broad's recovery is a major boost for a side that hasn't passed the quarter-final stage of the World Cup since 1992.

"I'm 100% fit now and excited about the chances of playing in a World Cup," Broad told ESPNCricinfo. "It's been a while since I've been on a field. I've been in the gym and in the nets but I'm excited about that competitive edge you get on the pitch and excited about our chances as well." 

Until the side were derailed in Australia by series of lacklustre batting efforts England have had a good run in limited-overs cricket. They won the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean last year and have won five ODI series in a row - beating South Africa, Australia and Pakistan in an undefeated run that stretches back to a 6-1 loss to Australia, again, after the 2009 Ashes win. 

"We've been in really good ODI form over the past two years, this was our first series defeat since Australia 2009 so we know we're a talented ODI team it's important we get four or five injured players back on the park and we'll be almost at full strength." 

The key to England's limited-overs success has been Eoin Morgan, whose inventive and nerveless batting has underpinned a strong batting line-up. In games England have won he's averaged 59.66 compared to 24.90 when they lose. Broad admits that his absence is "a huge loss" but remains upbeat about their chances.

England's first task will be their warm-up match against Canada in Bangladesh on February 16 and Broad insists they will be ready for it. 

"We take every game seriously, we prepare properly and make sure there's no stone left unturned it's important for the group and even our warm-up games to make sure we hit the ground running because you can't just turn on a good performance you have to be good throughout."

Batting long is Sehwag's aim

As if Virender Sehwag's batting strike-rate of 102 over a decade in one-day cricket wasn't enough to frighten bowlers, he has now set his sights on batting long during the World Cup. During his astonishing double-century against Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan in the Galle Test in 2008, Sehwag carried his bat but he is yet to bat out the full quota of overs in one-dayers, something he hopes to achieve. 

"I think I never played 50 overs in one-day cricket, maximum I faced is 42-44 overs," a relaxed Sehwag said in Bangalore. "This time I'll try to bat 50 overs if I can. I have been trying for 10 years, I'm still trying." Emulating Sachin Tendulkar, who made the first and only double-century so far in the format when he played out 50 overs against South Africa last year, wasn't a target for Sehwag though. "Sachin has played 50 overs many times, not just once, but he could make 200 only once because it is not easy to make 200 in a one-dayer." 

Nearly a third of Sehwag's innings have been single-digit efforts, a proportion he aims to reduce with a more measured approach early in the innings. "I have Yuvraj [Singh], MS Dhoni, [Suresh] Raina, [Virat] Kohli and Yusuf [Pathan] in the middle order, so I can go after the bowling straight from the first ball, but nowadays I'm a giving a little bit of respect for first 4-5 overs," he said. "Then I can take on the bowlers to make sure I give a good start so even if I get out the middle order can take their time and then go after the bowling."

This will be the first World Cup since Twenty20 become a big-money phenomenon, and Sehwag says the rise of cricket's newest format will mean teams batting first will have to set bigger targets to feel safe. "If you get a good batting track, 320 or 300 will be a par score in the World Cup," he said. "IPL changed a lot of batsmen's mindsets, because batsmen now think we can chase 10 run an over anytime. Before teams thought you have lost the game if they needed to chase 10 an over, but now with the power-hitters in the team, they will chase it and that will be very exciting to see in the World Cup" 

Injuries and the team management's decision to rest him from some recent series has meant Sehwag goes into the World Cup not having played a one-dayer in more than five months. He missed the recent series against South Africa due to a shoulder problem, and though he is satisfied with his recovery, he is yet to start bowling. "I'm taking regular treatment, so hopefully it will be fine when the match comes," he said. "I don't want to bowl in the nets and get injured again, so when I feel my shoulder is better I can start bowling." 

Shoulder trouble ruled Sehwag out of the past three global ICC tournaments - the Champions Trophy in 2009, and the previous two World Twenty20s - and India have had early exits in each of those, despite entering as title contenders. This World Cup, too, India are one of the front-runners. What lessons has the team learnt from past failures? "The only thing we learnt is that we are not favourites."